It was not quite so far off as could have been wished; but it was probably far enough, her radius of movement and repute having been so small. To persons of limited spheres, miles are as geographical degrees, parishes as counties, counties as provinces and kingdoms.
这个地方还不是她所希望的那样远;但是也许足够远了,因为她活动的范围和她的名声,一直就小得很。对于一个活动范围有限的人来说,英里就是地球上的经纬度,教区就是郡,郡就是省和王国。

On one point she was resolved: there should be no more d'Urberville air-castles in the dreams and deeds of her new life. She would be the dairymaid Tess, and nothing more. Her mother knew Tess's feeling on this point so well, though no words had passed between them on the subject, that she never alluded to the knightly ancestry now.
有一点她是打定了主意的:在她新生活的梦想和活动中,不应该再有德贝维尔的空中楼阁了。她只是一个挤牛奶的女工苔丝,此外不是别的什么。对于这一点,尽管她和母亲之间从来没有就这个问题谈过一句话,她的母亲也很能够理解苔丝的感情了,所以现在也就不丙提什么武士的祖先了。

Yet such is human inconsistency that one of the interests of the new place to her was the accidental virtue of its lying near her forefathers' country (for they were not Blakemore men, though her mother was Blakemore to the bone). The dairy called Talbothays, for which she was bound, stood not remotely from some of the former estates of the d'Urbervilles, near the great family vaults of her granddames and their powerful husbands. She would be able to look at them, and think not only that d'Urberville, like Babylon, had fallen, but that the individual innocence of a humble descendant could lapse as silently. All the while she wondered if any strange good thing might come of her being in her ancestral land and some spirit within her rose automatically as the sap in the twigs. It was unexpended youth, surging up anew after its temporary check, and bringing with it hope, and the invincible instinct towards self-delight.
可是人类就是如此地自相矛盾,苔丝对要去的那个新的地方发生兴趣,其中一个原因就是那个地方恰巧靠近她的祖先的故土(因为他们都不是布莱克莫尔人,虽然她的母亲是一个土生土长的布莱克莫尔人)。她要去的那个奶牛场的名字叫泰波塞斯,离德贝维尔家过去的几处田产不远,附近就是她的祖宗奶奶和她们显赫丈夫的家族大墓室。她要去那儿看看他们,不仅会想想德贝维尔家像巴比伦一样衰败了,也会想想一个卑微后裔的清白能够无声无息地消失。她一直在想,在她祖先的土地上会不会有什么奇异的好事出现;在她的身上,有某种精神就像树枝的汁水一样,自动地涌现出来。那就是还没有耗尽的青春活力,在受到短暂的压制之后又重新高涨起来,给青春带来了希望,也唤醒了不可压制的追求快乐的本能。